2023 Reflection

Dear supporters of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum,

Happy 2024! As we head into an exciting new year, I want to take a moment to highlight a few of the amazing accomplishments from 2023. Last year was quite unlike any year in the long history of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum (2023). Here are just a few of the many notable events from the past twelve months:

• Thanks to our many generous donors, the museum’s fundraising efforts generated $1.1 million to support museum education and preservation programs, HVAC renovations, and exhibit expansion project. We believe this is most successful year of fundraising in our history.
• The museum initiated an ambitious capital project to completely replace its failing HVAC system. The museum closed on July 24 and remained closed for the remainder of the year. We provided outreach programs and offsite exhibits, and we implemented other efforts to continue to engage the public.
• As part of this public engagement, we opened the Museum Annex on July 25. This gallery space in the Plaza of Rockies became our temporary location for the rest of the year. We welcomed individuals, families, and school groups to this location. Here’s just one example, over 700 people visited on December 9 to participate in our Festival of Lights Open House.
• Throughout construction, Museum staff dismantled exhibits and moved hundreds of artifacts from exhibit spaces and storage area. Nearly every space in the building was touched by construction, and the CSPM team focused on collection preservation and protection efforts throughout the main building. Museum staff was in the courthouse everyday managing supporting the construction project.
• We opened the new exhibit Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight in the annex space. This traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum of Air and Space Museum includes information collected by museum staff on local Tuskegee airmen.
• The CSPM unveiled a new exhibit “C” is for Current that focuses on the history of Loo Art and Current Inc., the influential mail order company that created in the postwar years. The museum hosted a Current family reunion for dozens of former employees in December. Many of these employees had not seen each other in decades.